How to encode using the FFMpeg in Android (using H263) - encoding

Question

I am trying to follow the sample code on encoding in the ffmpeg document and successfully build a application to encode and generate a mp4 file but I face the following problems:
1) I am using the H263 for encoding but I can only set the width and height of the AVCodecContext to 176x144, for other case (like 720x480 or 640x480) it will return fail.
2) I can't play the output mp4 file by using the default Android player, isn't it support H263 mp4 file? p.s. I can play it by using other player
3) Is there any sample code on encoding other video frame to make a new video (which mean decode the video and encode it back in different quality setting, also i would like to modify the frame content)?
Here is my code, thanks!
JNIEXPORT jint JNICALL Java_com_ffmpeg_encoder_FFEncoder_nativeEncoder(JNIEnv* env, jobject thiz, jstring filename){
LOGI("nativeEncoder()");
avcodec_register_all();
avcodec_init();
av_register_all();
AVCodec *codec;
AVCodecContext *codecCtx;
int i;
int out_size;
int size;
int x;
int y;
int output_buffer_size;
FILE *file;
AVFrame *picture;
uint8_t *output_buffer;
uint8_t *picture_buffer;
/* Manual Variables */
int l;
int fps = 30;
int videoLength = 5;
/* find the H263 video encoder */
codec = avcodec_find_encoder(CODEC_ID_H263);
if (!codec) {
LOGI("avcodec_find_encoder() run fail.");
}
codecCtx = avcodec_alloc_context();
picture = avcodec_alloc_frame();
/* put sample parameters */
codecCtx->bit_rate = 400000;
/* resolution must be a multiple of two */
codecCtx->width = 176;
codecCtx->height = 144;
/* frames per second */
codecCtx->time_base = (AVRational){1,fps};
codecCtx->pix_fmt = PIX_FMT_YUV420P;
codecCtx->codec_id = CODEC_ID_H263;
codecCtx->codec_type = AVMEDIA_TYPE_VIDEO;
/* open it */
if (avcodec_open(codecCtx, codec) < 0) {
LOGI("avcodec_open() run fail.");
}
const char* mfileName = (*env)->GetStringUTFChars(env, filename, 0);
file = fopen(mfileName, "wb");
if (!file) {
LOGI("fopen() run fail.");
}
(*env)->ReleaseStringUTFChars(env, filename, mfileName);
/* alloc image and output buffer */
output_buffer_size = 100000;
output_buffer = malloc(output_buffer_size);
size = codecCtx->width * codecCtx->height;
picture_buffer = malloc((size * 3) / 2); /* size for YUV 420 */
picture->data[0] = picture_buffer;
picture->data[1] = picture->data[0] + size;
picture->data[2] = picture->data[1] + size / 4;
picture->linesize[0] = codecCtx->width;
picture->linesize[1] = codecCtx->width / 2;
picture->linesize[2] = codecCtx->width / 2;
for(l=0;l<videoLength;l++){
//encode 1 second of video
for(i=0;i<fps;i++) {
//prepare a dummy image YCbCr
//Y
for(y=0;y<codecCtx->height;y++) {
for(x=0;x<codecCtx->width;x++) {
picture->data[0][y * picture->linesize[0] + x] = x + y + i * 3;
}
}
//Cb and Cr
for(y=0;y<codecCtx->height/2;y++) {
for(x=0;x<codecCtx->width/2;x++) {
picture->data[1][y * picture->linesize[1] + x] = 128 + y + i * 2;
picture->data[2][y * picture->linesize[2] + x] = 64 + x + i * 5;
}
}
//encode the image
out_size = avcodec_encode_video(codecCtx, output_buffer, output_buffer_size, picture);
fwrite(output_buffer, 1, out_size, file);
}
//get the delayed frames
for(; out_size; i++) {
out_size = avcodec_encode_video(codecCtx, output_buffer, output_buffer_size, NULL);
fwrite(output_buffer, 1, out_size, file);
}
}
//add sequence end code to have a real mpeg file
output_buffer[0] = 0x00;
output_buffer[1] = 0x00;
output_buffer[2] = 0x01;
output_buffer[3] = 0xb7;
fwrite(output_buffer, 1, 4, file);
fclose(file);
free(picture_buffer);
free(output_buffer);
avcodec_close(codecCtx);
av_free(codecCtx);
av_free(picture);
LOGI("finish");
return 0; }

Answer 1

H263 accepts only certain resolutions:
128 x 96
176 x 144
352 x 288
704 x 576
1408 x 1152
It will fail with anything else.

Answer 2

The code supplied in the question (I used it myself at first) seems to only generate a very rudimentary, if any, container format.
I found that this example, http://cekirdek.pardus.org.tr/~ismail/ffmpeg-docs/output-example_8c-source.html, worked much better as it creates a real container for the video and audio streams. My video is now displayable on the Android device.